Time and Space
by TheatreBrat
Summary: A collection of unconnected drabbles, spanning the first four seasons of the new series. Spoilers through all four seasons.
1. Chapter 1

**Extraordinary**

There's a man, an extraordinary man. The most extraordinary man in the world.

He's saved the whole planet, more times than you could count.

He's fought with Rose Tyler, although she's trapped in another world now.

He's faced Daleks, and Cybermen, and a thousand other threats to Earth that most of the population never even knew about.

He was on the TARDIS when it flew the Earth back home.

He spends his life fighting for you, and chances are you don't even know his name.

He's extraordinary, the most extraordinary man in the world, and his name is Mickey Smith.


	2. One

**One**

Time Lords have two hearts, and humans have only one.

If you were to put all the brilliance in a Time Lord's brain into human grey matter, you'd need a million tiny human brains, more. There's a limit to what can fit in one human brain.

There had only ever been one Time Lord who'd thought of humans as anything more than one more vaguely sentient species.

And now, deep inside the volcano, as Donna Noble places one human hand over his, and takes half the responsibility into her one brilliant human heart, the Doctor knows he's always been right.


	3. Barcelona

**Barcelona**

The first thing he'd promised her, the new him with his new weird teeth and his big hair and his mole, was that they would go to Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona.

Then he'd promised her ten quid if Queen Victoria wasn't amused. They both forgot, moving on to a new adventure, and she didn't get her ten quid.

Then he promised her that the Beast, or whatever that thing had been, was lying. He said she wouldn't die in battle, and she'd believed him. Well, he hadn't lied. Not technically.

They never did get to Barcelona.


	4. Obey

**Obey**

You ask me why I obey. You tell me there is so much more to the universe than killing. You say you can help me.

You do not make sense. What am I, if I do not obey?

You tell me that I am nothing. You say that if I cannot think for myself, I cannot be free. I do not understand this concept.

You tell me that I am nothing, and you are wrong. I am a Dalek. Daleks are supreme. I am superior to you. Your words mean nothing.

I am ordered to kill you, and I obey.


	5. Stars

**Stars**

See that star? That star, and all the planets around it, would have winked out of existence hundreds of years ago, if it wasn't for a man called the Doctor.

And that one there – there's a planet orbiting that star where people still tell stories of a girl called Rose Tyler.

Oh, and that one, over there – that one's got a whole world flying round it, named after Martha Jones.

And now, put the telescope away, step back, and look at the stars, every star in the sky, and know that for one glorious moment, Donna Noble outshone them all.


	6. Victory

**Victory**

You think you're so clever, don't you, Doctor? All that about the greatest weapon of all – pure theatrics.

Oh, and all business with the psychic network – honestly, floating across the room with a sparkly purple halo? That's really not doing anything for your great big macho reputation, you know.

And now you're cradling me in your arms like a child, screaming at me not to die, and you know, I almost feel sorry for you.

The last of your precious kind is dying, and it's your fault. Again. You've got to live with this, forever.

Guess what, Doctor?

I win.


	7. Falling

**Falling**

They're falling through time, Donna and the Doctor, and it scares her half to death. The TARDIS seems to have a mind of its own, and the Doctor never seems entirely certain where they're going to end up. The only certainty is that no matter where they are, they'll end up running for their lives.

They're falling through time, Donna and the Doctor, and she knows she'd be safer at home, and sometimes she even wonders if she shouldn't just go back to being a temp from Chiswick.

And then he takes her hand, and they're not falling.

They're flying.


	8. Other

**Other**

Rose had spent four months in the other universe – her universe, now – when she met the other Jack Harkness.

The two of them had, completely independently, ended up battling shop dummies in a London department store.

He'd waved a bomb at her, said "Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler. Run for your life!" and disappeared back into the building.

Rose didn't stop grinning for a long time.

And then, when Jack's plan had failed, and the dummies had backed him into a corner, a door opened behind him, a hand wrapped around his, and Rose Tyler said one word.

"Run."


	9. Worth

**Worth**

You were in love with him, weren't you? So was I, once. I think it's impossible not to fall in love with his life, and from there it's a small step to falling in love with him.

You're lucky, though. You've found yourself a new bloke.

And me? I've got a whole universe of other men to choose from, and I doubt any of them'll ever measure up to him.

You'll never forget him, either, and you know it.

But that's all right, isn't it?

Because you and I both know, don't we Martha – the Doctor is worth it all.


	10. Just

**Just**

You keep trying to tell me you're just a temp from Chiswick, and I want to tell you that I'm just a shop girl from the Powell Estate, and I turned the Emperor of the Daleks into a pile of dust, but I can't.

You get angry with me, and I don't listen, I just keep telling you how important you are. You tell me to leave you alone, and that's okay. Really, get as angry as you want with me, and with the world, I don't mind.

But Donna Noble, don't you dare tell me you're just a temp.


	11. Christmas

**Christmas**

Donna Noble hated Christmas.

She hated the press of people in all the shops, and the tinny, horrifically irritating music blasting from every speaker, and the crass commercialism disguised as goodwill, and everything else she could think of.

She'd never remember the one Christmas she hadn't hated – a Christmas of alien spiders and robot Santas, the Christmas when she'd met the man who changed her life.

The snow came out of nowhere.

People rushed inside, and suddenly, deserted and blanketed in white, Chiswick was beautiful.

Donna smiled, and high above her, a man in a little blue box smiled back.


	12. Freezing

**Freezing**

It feels like it's freezing sometimes, freezing inside my head. That's daft, and I know it is, but that's the only way I can think of to describe it. It's like there was something burning in my mind, something filling every part of me with fire and warmth, and now it's gone.

I shouldn't be complaining, really. I've got a nice, posh job, and it's only temporary, but it's something.

It's just… there's this sort of niggling feeling, like I'm missing something. Like I could be, I don't know, better.

Yeah, I could be better.

I'm missing something.

I'm cold.


	13. Impossible

**Impossible**

Impossible's just a word. A word that we prove wrong every other day, my Rose Tyler and me. From escaping from black holes, to becoming the imaginary friends of French aristocrats, to turning the Emperor of the Daleks to dust, there's nothing the two of us can't do.

Impossible's just a word, it has to be. If we can do everything we've done, then surely we can find a way back to each other. There has to be a way, and I will find it, Rose.

Impossible's just a word. I will find you.

Impossible's just a word.

Isn't it?


	14. Imagine

**Imagine**

This is what I did to her.

Imagine everything you've ever wanted to see, everything you've ever wanted to experience. Now imagine that you can. Anywhere, anywhen you want to be, you can.

Donna's grandfather was right. She was better, out there in the stars.

Imagine all the potential you keep locked inside you, in your brain and your heart and your soul.

This is what I did to her.

Imagine all the planets out there, everything you've ever dreamed. Imagine civilisations, singing their songs for you.

Imagine all those worlds.

And now, one by one, take them all away.


	15. Child

**Child**

I was nineteen years old when I started travelling with the Doctor. Young, yes, but not a child. I hadn't thought of myself as a child for years, and yet everywhere we went, someone always called me a child.

Even that Beast, whatever it was, on Krop Tor, the thing that got inside our heads and _knew_ us, knew who we were – even that thing called me a child.

And now I'm back, walking straight past terrified, panicking people, with a gun made of stolen alien tech that I know exactly how to use.

I'm not a child any more.


	16. Worlds

**Worlds**

You humans get so wrapped up in your spacecrafts and probes and radio signals and whatever else you've invented to try and contact other worlds, you forget about your own planet.

Because even stuck on Earth, rent and chips and work and sleep isn't all there is, oh no. Just ask Torchwood. Ask the kid no one talks to, the one with all those mad conspiracy theories. Ask the little girl down the road with the fairies at the bottom of her garden.

Go on.

Just scratch the surface of your little world.

Cause there's a million more worlds underneath.


	17. Fun

**Fun**

The Doctor's definition of fun is a little bit different from other people's.

For the Doctor, fun usually involves monsters, constant danger, getting other people out of trouble, and lots of running for your life.

He can take on gas mask zombies, Cybermen, the Slitheen family, even the Devil itself, and still come out of it grinning. A real live werewolf can be charging him, and he'll stop to admire it.

Because you see, for the Doctor, fun is fantastic creatures, adrenaline rushes, and taking your best mate to see the universe.

Oh yes.

And an awful lot of running.


	18. Shouting

**Shouting**

My name is Donna Noble.

My mother always told me I should've worked harder in school, and she was right. I slacked around, and now I've got no A levels, nothing that'll get me into any sort of well-paid job.

So I'm a temp. I shift jobs every other month, onto the next dreary company until they sack me cause I'm not quite as smart as the next temp to come along.

My Grandad tells me I can't change the world by shouting at it, but maybe if I shout loud enough, things'll get better.

What else can I do?


	19. Immortal

**Immortal**

I am immortal. I've been killed more times than I can remember. I've been shot, stabbed, starved, beaten to death, impaled, disembowelled, burned, frozen, flayed, poisoned, everything you can think of, until all I can remember, all I know, is that I will never fully die.

I am immortal. Sure, it sounds good – I don't need to fear anything, not even death. That doesn't make it easy, though. Everyone forgets that. Bravado and jokes don't make dying any easier.

I am an immortal prisoner, and the Master's coming back, again.

I am immortal.

And right now, I want to die.


	20. Devil

**Devil**

The Doctor and Rose Tyler defeated the Devil on an impossible sanctuary base on Krop Tor by following its own rules – an epic-scale battle, using the power of belief against the Beast, and innocent people dying along the way.

It worked well enough.

But you see, humanity's been fighting the Devil for a very long time, and they haven't been following the Beast's rules.

An idea as potent as the Devil will always rise again, no matter how many grand confrontations it loses.

But when a New York showgirl can turn that idea into pure, silly entertainment, then humanity's winning.


	21. Sometimes

**Sometimes**

Sometimes everybody dies.

The Doctor knows this. He destroyed the Time Lords, he set his own planet on fire and watched it burn.

But he carries on. Even finds himself a new companion, a shop girl from London, and shows her the stars, going through the motions, never entirely certain why he keeps going.

And then they follow a distress call that isn't a distress call, and Rose wants to dance with him, and Jack develops a conscience, and a little boy finds his mother, and suddenly the Doctor remembers why he keeps going.

Because sometimes – just sometimes – everybody lives.


	22. Lonely

**Lonely**

I wish I'd said goodbye to you.

I didn't get it quite right, looking into your mind. You'd never been alone in your life, that was true enough. You'd always been surrounded by people, and none of them were the fireplace man you waited your whole life for.

I'm sorry, Reinette.

I knew there was a good chance I wouldn't come back to you, but I was an idiot. I didn't want to believe I wouldn't see you again, so I never said goodbye.

I hope one day you forgave me, my Madame de Pompadour.

Godspeed, Reinette, my lonely angel.


	23. Needed

**Needed**

There's always been way too many coincidences around Donna Noble. The Doctor's decided it's all some grand plan so that he can meet her, and he's right about that. The universe realigned itself so that those two could be together.

But really, it could've been anyone in that TARDIS with the Doctor's hand, anyone who got Time Lord knowledge crammed into their brain.

So yes, the Doctor needed Donna Noble, more than anything. Not for any grand universal plan, and not to fulfil anyone's destiny.

You see, after Rose and Martha, the Doctor really just needed to be shouted at.


	24. Spoilers

**Spoilers**

"_I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up."_

You're in a million books, Doctor. We see everything you've ever done, and everyone you've ever been.

It's impressive, we will grant you that, but it in the end, none of it matters. We will devour you, as we have devoured your little human friends.

Wait. There is one book we haven't read. A foreign book. A book one of your humans brought to the Library. A small, blue book, its pages ratty from use.

Spoilers…

We see what you will be.

And we retreat.


	25. Alone

**Alone**

Y'know, Spaceman, for a self-proclaimed genius, you can be a bit of a dumbo.

That big face thing told you that you weren't alone, and you didn't believe him. You thought you'd killed all the other Time Lords, I get that.

But don't you ever think that maybe that wasn't what he meant?

Look around you, Doctor. There's me, there'll always be me. And there's Martha, Rose, Jack, Jackie and Mickey, the ex-prime minister for goodness' sake. And there's Torchwood and Sarah-Jane, and they're all fighting for you.

That face thing was right.

You're not alone.

And you never were.


	26. Meaning

**Meaning**

The Doctor's off on one of his rants again, telling Rose exactly how brilliantly clever he is. She rolls her eyes, and he takes exception to that.

"All right, ask me something. Anything you like, and I bet I'll know the answer."

Rose grins, thinking she's won.

"Meaning of life," she says smugly.

"Easy!"

The Doctor starts bouncing around the console, hitting buttons, and Rose watches, curious now.

"I can't just tell you the answer," he says. "Let me show you."

The TARDIS lands, and the Doctor grabs her hand and pulls her out the door, onto another new world.


	27. Tonight

**Tonight**

There's a storm approaching. I can feel it. Something's coming, something bigger than we've ever faced, and I don't know if we're both going to survive.

Mind you, I didn't feel like this before the GameStation, and I didn't survive that. So maybe I'm overreacting.

And maybe this time it's not going to be me who doesn't make it.

So maybe tomorrow I'll lose you, Rose Tyler – but tonight, you're right here with me, trying to figure out how to fly the TARDIS and laughing when you get it wrong.

Tonight, you're right here, and tomorrow doesn't matter in the slightest.


	28. Waiting

**Waiting**

It was one night in October, a while after the Doctor had returned Donna to earth, memories wiped, and Donna was up the hill with her Gramps, watching the stars and escaping her mother's nagging.

"I know it looks like I'm just drifting," she was saying, "but I'm not, not really. I'm just waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Wilf asked. They'd had this same conversation, months ago, and she'd said she was waiting for the Doctor.

_Waiting for what?_

Donna looked lost, suddenly.

"I don't know," she said, and Wilf looked away so she wouldn't see the tears in his eyes.


	29. Coward

**Coward**

The last time the Ninth Doctor saw Rose Tyler, he'd nearly committed genocide, again, destroying the Daleks and Earth.

_Coward or killer?_

And then his fantastic Rose had come back, glowing and beautiful and dying for him, and she'd saved the world.

_Coward, every time._

The last time the Tenth Doctor saw Rose Tyler, he'd used the destruction of someone else's world, just to say goodbye. He'd only had two minutes, and he'd wasted them… and he'd done it on purpose.

He could burn up a supernova for her, and he couldn't say three simple words.

_Coward. Every damn time._


	30. Reason

**Reason**

Reason dictates that a man like the Doctor should travel with the best. He'd take his companions from top universities, or royal courts, or anywhere the elite of a particular time and place gather together.

He certainly wouldn't pick up shop girls from London council estates, or temps from Chiswick, or interns from mediocre student hospitals.

Reason dictates that if a man like the Doctor was ever to fall in love, it would be with a mature, sophisticated woman, and certainly not a nineteen-year-old girl without an A-level to her name.

Then again, the Doctor never really listened to reason.


	31. Daughter

**Daughter**

My daughter is the most important woman in the world.

She disappears for months at a time with that Doctor of hers, and comes back with a thousand stories of how they saved this planet and that planet, and yet she still can't manage to hold down a decent job when she is at home.

That doesn't matter though, not really. Because wherever and whenever she goes, whatever foreign worlds she visits, I'll always be waiting for her.

My name is Jackie Tyler, and Francine Jones, and Sylvia Noble.

And my daughter is the most important woman in the world.


	32. Everything

**Everything**

Everything has its time, and everything dies.

The Doctor knows this better than most, having witnessed the destruction of a hundred worlds, more, in a war spanning galaxies and fought through time itself.

River Song knows this, having listened to the Doctor's stories of Gallifrey and the war.

And when they get to the Library, River knows, better than the Doctor, how their story will end, and he's laughing when he takes her on that final run.

Because River Song knows that everything has its time, and she knows that everything dies.

But not if the Doctor can help it.


	33. Broken

**Broken**

It's a mirror inside Lucy's mind.

It didn't take much to crack the glass – it was already fragile when she met the man who called himself Harold Saxon.

The Master systematically shattered it, spreading cracks across its surface until it finally collapsed.

Lucy's mind is not a mirror any more – broken beyond repair, just shards of glass now.

But there's something in the smashed glass that no one whose mind is still whole can ever see.

Sometimes, one of those disconnected pieces of glass will catch the light, the way no normal mirror ever could.

Inside Lucy's mind, it's beautiful.


	34. Chance

**Chance**

There's a few things you should know about me.

For starters, if you come with me, there's a pretty good chance you won't end up safe and sound back home at the end of it all. There's a great wide universe out there, and a good portion of it's not entirely friendly. You could get hurt; you might even get killed.

I should also probably warn you that bad things tend to happen around me, and people you care for can easily get caught in the crossfire.

On the other hand… well, there's a great wide universe out there.

Coming?


	35. Pretending

**Pretending**

You're not all right, of course you're not. Any idiot can see that. Problem is, I don't know what to do about it. Alien or not, sometimes you're just like any other stupid bloke – no matte how badly you need a good cry or a hug or whatever's gonna help you cope, you can't just ask.

You'll stand there pretending to be all right until I stop asking, I know you will.

So we'll both stand here, and we'll both pretend to be all right, and that's fine. Cause maybe just knowing we're both pretending – well, maybe it's a start.


	36. Honour

**Honour**

My name is John Maynard Jefferson. I fought in my first war when I was eighteen years old, I've been a soldier ever since, and if I've learned one thing in my many years in the armed forces, it's that a man should always uphold his honour, and the honour of his comrades.

So this beast, or whatever it is, this devil – it can kill me all it likes, and it won't get its victory.

My name is John Maynard Jefferson. I will die with honour here today. And no God damned devil is gonna take that away from me.


	37. Strength

**Strong**

The thing is, Doctor, when you first told me to use the countdown, when I first figured out what you meant – I didn't for a second think I couldn't do it. Cause you see, travelling with you, I figured out a few things about myself.

Like how I'm stronger and braver than I ever thought I was. Strong enough to walk the earth on my own for a year. Brave enough to face the Master with just a fake gun and a story.

I almost wish you hadn't shown me that, Doctor.

Because now, I'm strong enough to leave you.


	38. Unscathed

**Unscathed**

Only one companion has ever come away from travelling with the Doctor completely unscathed.

Only one companion has avoided the lifelong scars, physical or emotional, that travelling with the Doctor brings.

Only one companion has been returned to her family, just as they were when she left.

Only one companion has made a totally clean break from a life with the Doctor.

Only one companion will never be haunted by memories and nightmares from a thousand galaxies away.

Only one companion has ever come away from travelling with the Doctor completely unscathed, and she is the most ruined of all.


	39. Perfect

**Perfect**

The human Doctor wasn't perfect. He couldn't take me to far-off galaxies, or Victorian Scotland, or anywhere else he wanted to.

I tried not to look for my Doctor, my alien Doctor in everything he did, but I didn't do very well. He tried not to be hurt when I accidentally let slip that I still missed the old him.

It never really worked, and eventually we just gave up.

I've got a new bloke now, and this time it's really working – we're getting married next February.

He's not perfect either – but then again, I never expected him to be.


	40. Could

**Could**

Donna Noble could be brilliant.

Her grandfather can see it, and I can see it, and I think her mother can almost see it, but that's all.

Donna Noble could be magnificent, and here she is working as a secretary, surrounded by idiots who have no idea what she's capable of.

Mind you, she doesn't even know what she's capable of any more.

Donna Noble could be fantastic, she really could, but she doesn't realise it. She doesn't believe she's anything special.

Donna Noble could be so brilliant, and here she is, being ordinary.

Maybe I should've let her burn.


	41. Feel

**Feel**

I can feel the turn of the earth.

I can feel the whole planet spinning, dragging us with it around the sun. I can feel the universe in ways all you little apes will never be able to. I can feel things I could never fully explain to someone like you, an Earth girl with no experience outside her cosy little council estate world.

I can feel time, rushing past us and around us.

I can feel the turn of the earth, with us balanced so precariously on it.

So take my hand, Rose Tyler.

And don't let me fall.


	42. Belong

**Belong**

You'll learn to belong in that other world. You've got your family, you've got Mickey – the one adventure I can never have.

I could never say this to you, of course, and I would never want to, but some part of me thinks you belong there already. Even if you could've travelled with me for the rest of your human life, you would always have belonged in London, with Jackie.

Because you see Rose, every time we walked away from some adventure gone bad, and I asked if you wanted to go home… you never once thought I meant the TARDIS.


	43. Darkness

**Darkness**

I am not what you think I am.

I am something you dare not even imagine. No, not even you, Time Lord.

You've been warned about me, so many times, and still I am not what you think I am.

You've known for so long… a storm is approaching, the darkness is coming…

You tell yourself the storm was Canary Wharf, the darkness was Davros and the reality bomb, but I think you know you're wrong.

You are mine, Time Lord. You have always been mine.

I am the darkness.

I'm coming for you.

And you are nowhere near ready.


	44. Roses

**Roses**

My name is River Song, and I have known the Doctor all my life. For as long as I can remember, he's been there, turning up in his blue box and whisking me off to all the corners of the universe.

I'd say I know him pretty well by now. I even know his name, the one secret he's kept from every other companion.

But there's one thing I still don't know.

You see, once, when I was young and silly, I gave him roses.

And he's never once told me why a silly bunch of flowers made him cry.


	45. Alive

**Alive**

I seem to have a talent for surviving. I lived through the Time War, the most devastating war the universe will ever see.

I lived through the destruction of Gallifrey. I never expected to survive the end of the Time War. To be honest, I didn't want to.

I lived through the eruption of Krakatoa, the sinking of the Titanic, and every other disaster I put myself in the way of.

Oh yes – I'm very good at just living.

But until a girl named Rose took my hand in a basement… I'd forgotten what it felt like to be _alive_.


	46. Burn

**Burn**

The first trip the Doctor took after he lost Rose was to Platform One in the year five billion.

It was stupid, he knew that. It was stupid and it broke every rule in the book, but he did it anyway.

So he tried to watch Rose. He did try. But every time she smiled, every time she spoke, every time that familiar spark of anger flared in her eyes… he had to look away.

He couldn't even look at the girl he'd shared his life with.

So the Doctor hid in a darkened corner, and watched the planet burn.


	47. Once

**Once**

Once, he took her hand in a shop basement, and saved her life.

Once, he almost didn't save the world, because he could have lost her.

Once, she let the Reapers in and almost destroyed the world, and he forgave her.

Once, he died for her, and kissed her to save her life.

Once, he defeated the Devil with the sheer strength of his belief in her.

Once, he almost said it out loud.

But then, the Doctor had already shown Rose Tyler, a million times and a million different ways, that he loved her.

It never really needed saying.


	48. Felt

**Felt**

For so many years, it felt nothing but hatred, seeing and hearing and speaking through layers of metal.

Then came the Time War.

Incapable of loneliness or boredom, it merely waited for orders. For years, it felt nothing. It simply existed, silent in its shell.

Then came Henry van Statten.

For months, it felt only physical pain, as technicians tried to force it to speak.

Then came Rose Tyler.

It felt… too many things to define.

It became the first Dalek to feel sunlight, the first to die in the warmth and the light.

For a second… it felt good.


	49. Defended

**Defended**

There's no Doctor here.

The Doctor's in another world, a parallel world. He can't ever get back here, and even if he could, he's got his own universe to save.

So we're on our own.

Cause this world's still got every alien race the other world – my home world – had, and some of them are just as hostile.

But that's okay. Cause now, this world's got me.

See, I used to travel with the Doctor, and I reckon I picked up a few things.

My name is Rose Marion Tyler.

And as long as I'm here, this planet is defended.


	50. Rain

**Rain**

It's raining outside.

It's the same rain, Sally says. Gorgeous Sally Sparrow. She's what I've been waiting for, all these years. Waiting to deliver a message from forty years in the past. Well, I've done it. It's over. No more waiting, nothing more to look forward to.

Sally says she'll stay.

She sits on the edge of my bed, and holds my hand. She looks so young, next to me.

Her hand looks so young, next to mine.

Sally Sparrow stays with me, sitting on the edge of my bed, holding my hand, for as long as the rain falls.


	51. Family

**Family**

I've got parents who can't be in a room together for five minutes without arguing, a brother and sister who just want me to solve everyone's problems – and then there's Annalise, the source of most of the tension.

I'm the one who's expected to step in and make everything better, and I can only sometimes do it.

My family make a scene everywhere they go. They're not the most peaceful family in the world, or the most functional.

But they're still my family.

And I will travel to the ends of the earth to defend them.

Got that, Mister Saxon?


	52. Was

**Was**

Peter Alan Tyler was born on the fifth of September, 1954. He was an easily distracted child, who never really lived up to his potential in school.

Peter Tyler was married, rather hurriedly, to Jacqueline Tyler, after she discovered she was pregnant.

Pete Tyler was an absent-minded husband, and an unreliable father.

Peter Tyler was killed in a car accident on the seventh of November, 1987. He sacrificed himself to fix a situation that wasn't his fault, and that he didn't even fully understand.

And to one nineteen-year-old girl, Peter Alan Tyler was the most wonderful man in the world.


	53. Aliens

**Aliens**

I'm surrounded by aliens.

My planet's going to die, and he just wants me to watch, and I don't even know who he is, not really – not at all – and everyone here is just so _alien_.

I need to get away, just for a bit. I just need to get my bearings, and I'll be fine.

They still have plumbers. I'm in the year five billion, surrounded by aliens, and they still have plumbers.

Okay, so the plumber's blue, and from some planet seven galaxies away, but they still have plumbers.

And suddenly, everything's just a little bit less alien.


	54. War

**War**

War is coming, marching towards England and casting its shadow over the whole world. And now, it is inevitable. England's boys will fight and die in the mud. All the little tin soldiers will march off to battle and glory, and so many of them will fall down dead.

The next army these boys fight won't be straw men, with nothing inside so that no one was really killed after all. Your boys will not walk away innocent again.

And not one of those boys, Headmaster, not a single one, will thank the man who taught them it was glorious.


	55. Know

**Know**

I do not regret what I did to the Sycorax on Christmas Day. I ruined my political career in a single night with that one action, but I will never regret it.

I believe that the Earth must be defended, and that the Doctor does not always know best.

I hope that I was a good Prime Minister, and that I inspired at least a few people to strive for better things.

And you, Daleks in your metal shells, knowing nothing of regrets or belief or hope or inspiration…

How _dare_ you tell me that you know who I am?


	56. Eye

**Eye**

You can't look me in the eye, can you Jack?

I was the one who abandoned you, thousands of years away from home, because of my own outmoded Time Lord prejudices. I should be the one avoiding your eye.

But all I have to do is ask you one question, and suddenly you can't look at me.

I want to hear you say this though, Jack. I want to know that you're not another Lazarus, glorying in his immortality, thinking himself so superior.

So look me in the eye, Captain Jack Harkness.

And tell me that you want to die.


	57. Vortex

**Vortex**

What a Galllifreyan child sees in the Untempered Schism is all the power of the universe. That's what the Doctor told Martha and Jack, anyway.

He didn't exactly lie.

What a Gallifreyan child sees in the Untempered Schism, is all the power of a Time Lord.

Some are inspired, and spend their lives using their abilities for good.

Some go mad, drunk on the sheer knowledge of their power and potential.

And some see all that they are capable of – creation and destruction, salvation and damnation and everything in between – they see all that they could be.

And they run.


	58. Wolf

**Wolf**

On a council estate in South London, a teenage girl refuses to give in.

The wolf stirs.

A boy in a big yellow truck opens the heart of the TARDIS, and Rose Tyler looks inside.

The wolf wakes.

They save their Doctor, Rose and her Bad Wolf. They save their Doctor and their Captain, and their Doctor saves Rose in return.

Two best friends travel the length and breadth of the universe, and the wolf rests, not sleeping, but passive now.

Then comes Torchwood.

The Doctor and Rose are separated, held apart by blank white walls.

And the wolf howls.


	59. Afraid

**Afraid**

This is the end of the Time War.

I am alone in the universe, the last of my kind.

I should not have survived.

I don't understand… how am I still alive, when everything I know is gone? How have I survived, when my people and my planet burned?

They screamed as they died. All those I fought with, and all those I fought against, gone in the same second.

I don't understand why I survived.

This is the end of the Time War.

I am alone in the universe.

And I am the first Dalek ever to be afraid.


	60. Empire

**Empire**

There is one thing the Master doesn't understand about the Doctor.

The Master knows how powerful the Doctor could be. He could build empires, he could create civilisations from dust, and all he does is pick up strays, changing one tiny, insignificant little human life at a time.

So the Master creates the first human-Time Lord empire. And the Doctor destroys it.

Because there is one thing the Master will never understand about the Doctor.

Long after all the Master's grand empires have crumbled to dust, the Doctor will still be changing the world, one human life at a time.


	61. Number

**Number**

All those deaths the Toclafane caused, all those hundreds of millions of people – they were just numbers. That's what the Master was counting on. Once you kill enough people, they stop being people. Hundreds of millions is too many to grieve for, too many to remember. Too many to fight for.

That's where the Master made his biggest mistake.

The whole planet was too scared, and too tired, and too hopeless to resist for the sake of hundreds of millions of dead ordinary people.

But one child walking the earth, a child called Martha Jones… that's something to fight for.


	62. Ring

**Ring**

I picked up the Master's ring, because he told me once that it contained the reason for everything he did. All the deaths, all the suffering, all the war – the ring held the reason for it all.

For such a long time, I thought he was lying.

The ring only contains one thing, and it's such a simple thing… but it was the reason for all that destruction.

And now I have it. Now I wear the Master's ring, and I understand him and all the destruction he created, because the answer's here, in my mind.

_Da da da dum._


	63. Century

**Century**

For an immortal, the passing of each consecutive century doesn't really mean much. Just another hundred years lived, another hundred years of waiting for a death that won't ever come.

Jack Harkness never celebrated the turn of any century. But then, Jack never really celebrated much any more. He was so old now. Everyone he could've celebrated with was dead or gone.

Outside, the fireworks started, as the earth moved forward into a new century, a new age. In the streets, people cheered and kissed and celebrated.

And Jack Harkness sat inside, alone, and waited for another century to pass.


	64. Second

**Second**

Every single second, somewhere in the universe, someone is in danger. If they're very lucky, they'll be saved. And if they're very, very lucky – their saviour will be a man in an impossible blue police box.

But then, the Doctor doesn't only travel to save people.

The Doctor keeps travelling because every single second, somewhere in the universe, someone's laughing, someone's singing, and someone's falling in love.

And every single second, somewhere in the universe, someone walks round a corner.

And if they're lucky – if they're very, very lucky – then around that corner will be an impossible blue police box.


	65. Spaceship

**Spaceship**

This is my spaceship. It's temperamental, difficult to fly, and often lands in the wrong place, or the wrong decade, with no reason for the mistake. It's alien, strange-looking, and bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

It's not entirely functional – the chameleon circuit's broken, so it permanently looks like a fifties police box.

If it's in a bad mood, you'll be lucky to end up in the right _galaxy_, let alone the right planet.

This is my spaceship. It's called the TARDIS, and if you let it, it'll take you on the trip of a lifetime.


	66. Wrong

**Wrong**

The prophecies are wrong. There is no Pompeiian empire, and there never will be. There is no prosperous future, no golden city, no legends told for centuries of the beauty and wealth and power of Pompeii.

Everything I saw, preparing to join the Sisterhood, everything the gods showed me, it was all a lie.

There will be legends of Pompeii, but they will be tales of ash and fire and death. We will be remembered, not as empire builders, but as helpless victims.

Everything I've ever been taught is a lie.

So tell me, Doctor… what do I do now?


	67. Morning

**Morning**

The mornings are the hardest. Rose wakes up, and for just a few seconds, she can believe she's in her room in the TARDIS, and the Doctor's about to barge in and announce that they've landed on the planet of the hats or something…

And then she opens her eyes, and she's in her bed in Pete's mansion.

So she gets up, goes to the window, and opens the curtains… and the sunlight bounces off a rather familiar-looking spaceship, carving a chunk out of Big Ben.

London and England and the world are thrown into chaos – and Rose just grins.


	68. Orbiting

**Orbiting**

We spend our lives orbiting one another, never getting close enough to really see each other. Never getting close enough to touch.

To me, you are an eternal disappointment, never living up to what I'd hoped my daughter would be.

To you, I suppose I'm an annoyance, something to avoid when you go up that hill with your Granddad.

We're barely mother and daughter any more; we're just two people, two people who happen to live in the same house, to share the same last name.

So I suppose we'll just keep orbiting each other, never close enough to touch.


	69. Pit

**Pit**

You're a fool, Doctor.

You think that all those ideas, all those thousands of civilisations with their legends of a horned Beast, all those _stories_… you think they all came from this one pit?

You believe you've defeated me, you with your bold rhetoric, with that mind you think is so superior, with your childish, naïve _belief_?

Oh, I'll watch you fly away, Doctor. I'll watch you and all your little humans escape, and you'll never ever realise.

You'll fly away, thinking you're so safe, and never knowing that at the centre of a million other planets, I am laughing.


	70. Monsters

**Monsters**

Humans have a lot to learn about monsters. You see, to a human at the moment, anything substantially different from themselves is a monster. Aliens, werewolves, ghosts… even, occasionally, other humans.

But soon, humanity will discover the stars. Soon, humans will be out there among the monsters, and they will discover something.

Because contrary to what most humans expect, when the see the sheer variety of life in this universe, they won't want to destroy it, oh no.

When humans finally step out amongst the stars, they will find new, fantastic civilisations, and meet new, brilliant, glorious monsters… and dance.


	71. Fear

**Fear**

Fear is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Fear of a wife who never forgave you, of a father's power over you, of a secret getting out or a lie coming back to haunt you…

Fear is powerful enough that a creature chained in a cave can use it to become a legend spanning thousands of galaxies and countless civilisations.

Sure, fear's pretty powerful.

But it's not the all-defeating force that creature thought it was, not by a long shot.

Actually, it's the easiest thing in the world to defeat, provided you've got someone to believe in.


	72. Ghosts

**Ghosts**

Don't try to tell me this is beautiful.

You truly believe it's your father standing in that kitchen with you, I can see that. But Jackie, it's wishing and hoping that made it so.

And Jackie, I know what it's like to be totally unable to forget someone who's gone. I know how much it hurts. I know the temptation to see them again, just once, even if you can't hear them or touch them or have them know that you're there. I live with that temptation every single day.

Oh, Jackie.

Please, please don't tell me this is beautiful.


	73. Found

**Found**

My whole life, I was drifting, never really knowing where I was going, never really caring.

And then you found me.

You saved me, Doctor. I've never told you, I've never thanked you, but you really did save me.

You found all the brilliance I had in me, and you made me more than I ever thought I could be, and now you're standing in front of me, and I know you're going to make me forget it all.

I'm scared, of course I am. I'm terrified.

But you know something, Doctor?

I wouldn't have missed it for the world.


	74. New

**New**

The whole universe is new to you, and it's fantastic. The joy in your eyes when we land on a new planet, in a new galaxy, or the wonder in your face as you leave footprints in your own past – it's been so long since I felt like that, but you – somehow you make everything new all over again.

So I take you to every shining new world I can think of.

And tonight, we've ended up back on earth.

So we sit outside and watch the stars, and wait for the sun to rise on a brand new morning.


	75. Alias

**Alias**

John Smith has been my alias of choice for a long time – decades, actually. It was only logical that when I became human, I would be John Smith.

Oh yes, I was completely logical about the whole thing. The problem was, John Smith wasn't particularly logical at all, and John Smith went and fell in love.

He could've had a life, there in 1913.

But he sacrificed himself. He died and became a lonely man called the Doctor, who never even considered falling in love.

I still call myself John Smith, but now the name tastes bitter in my mouth.


	76. True

**True**

I don't know what's true any more.

I know that I love John Smith, and I know that he loves me. No, he _loved_ me. John Smith's gone now, replaced by this man, this man who looks the same but isn't, who swaggers around and leans against doorframes, this impossible man who saves the universe every day.

I know that John Smith was a hero, and the bravest, most extraordinary man I have ever met.

I know that this Doctor, this alien is desperately lonely. I know that he can never have what John Smith had.

And… I pity him.


	77. Price

**Price**

Life in the TARDIS is wonderful. It's amazing, the trip of a lifetime. But there's always a price to pay.

Some lose their families. Some lose their lives. Some lose their memories. Some simply have the Doctor and the TARDIS torn away from them too soon.

Some spend the rest of their lives remembering, constantly listening for the familiar sound of the TARDIS, letting their lives slip away.

And the Doctor watches them all leave, watches them as they wither, and die.

Yes, there's a price to pay for travelling on the TARDIS, and the Doctor pays it, every single day.


	78. Stop

**Stop**

I want to stop time, and I think I could do it. I could freeze the whole universe at this one moment, forever.

It would be almost murder, of course – taking away all the lives the universe could've had. Taking away the life you could have. I can't do that to you, Rose.

But oh, how I want to. I want to stay here, with you, knowing that you're safe, you're right here beside me. I want to destroy the universe for an endless moment with you.

And that's why I have to let the approaching storm take you away.


	79. Looking

**Looking**

I went back to Rose's estate a few times to watch her grow up.

I watched Mickey Smith looking at her like she was the girl he wanted to spend his life with, and I felt a little sorry for him.

I watched Jimmy Stone looking at her like she was _his_, and it took a lot of willpower not to go over and punch him.

She spent so many years being looked at by boys, and by men, and in all the time I watched her, the Doctor was the only one who ever saw how brilliant she is.


	80. Run

**Run**

_If the Doctor hadn't chosen this place – on a whim – would anyone here have died?_

So you leave. You keep moving on, away from the destruction behind you.

You save people, that's true. You never stay to be thanked, and isn't that just so noble?

You always move on. You never stay to answer questions, to help clean up, to deal with the horror you were part of.

However hard you try, you can't erase your memories of those who died.

You can never forget all those you've left behind.

So you do the only thing you can.

You run.


	81. After

**After**

It's all over. The battle's done, the Daleks and the Cybermen are gone, we survived, we should be celebrating, and instead I'm stuck staring at a blank white wall as if it's going to somehow give her back to me.

This wasn't supposed to happen, not to her. She was supposed to be my miracle girl, who could stay with me forever, never aging, never dying.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

I've lost her, and this blank wall in front of me isn't ever going to give her back to me.

So I turn, and I walk away.


	82. Fiction

**Fiction**

They're fantastic, these stories, but that's all they are – stories. Just silly fiction, the product of an overactive imagination.

Really, I don't know why I keep on bothering to write them down.

It's just that some images seem to sort of stick, refusing to leave my mind. A blue box, a blonde girl, images of worlds far away and out of reach.

The man in these stories is amazing, it's true – but he's not the man taking Joan Redfern dancing tonight.

My life is changing, and it's more than fantastic…

I think it's probably time to stop writing stories now.


	83. Want

**Want**

I know what you want out of this year, Master. I know you want me to be weakened, degraded by everything you've done to me, humiliated by my failure to save the inhabitants of my beloved Earth from your little empire.

It's more than that, though.

You want me to be angry with you. You want to know that you can get under my skin.

You want me to lose control.

All these years, you've worked so hard to make me lose control, because _you _want me to.

And I can undo it all with three words.

_I forgive you._


	84. Story

**Story**

My name is John Smith, and this is the last story I will ever tell.

For most of my life, nothing out of the ordinary happened, nothing at all, and I was content with that.

And then I met a woman called Joan Redfern.

She made me see the world in new, incredible ways, made me feel things I'd never felt. She made me believe that reality could be just as extraordinary as the dreams in my journal.

I love her.

I would have been happy.

My name is John Smith, and this is the story of how I died.


	85. Adventure

**Adventure**

The Doctor took Martha Jones on the adventure of her life – the promised single trip to say thank you turning into one huge trip of a lifetime, bouncing through time and space with the most brilliant man she'd ever met.

Well… almost the most brilliant.

Martha smiled to herself, thinking of Tom. Her Doctor, in all the ways a time-travelling alien never could be.

This was a new adventure. She was working for UNIT, a fully qualified doctor, moving in with her fiancé in a week…

She had a fantastic life… an adventure almost worth giving up the universe for.


	86. Clever

**Clever**

I can recite pi to a hundred places. That's more than anyone I've ever met, and I've met a lot of very clever people. Or at least, I've met a lot of people who thought they were very clever. Of course, I outsmarted them all.

I'm very, very clever, you see. Cleverer than anyone I've ever met.

And that's why I've got to do this. I've got to replace the Doctor on board that Sontaran ship.

Because for someone so very, very clever, it's taken me a very long time to figure out that I want to do something _good_.


	87. Turn

**Turn**

Turn right, and watch London destroyed. Meet a strange blonde girl who never changes her clothes and refuses to tell you her name. Live in a tiny, cramped kitchen, and watch your mother retreat further into her own mind every day.

Turn right, and give your life for the hope of a better universe.

Or turn left.

Turn left, and go on the most fantastic adventures you can imagine. Meet the most amazing man in the universe. Live in an impossible blue box.

Turn left and surrender your memories. Forget the Doctor and the TARDIS and the universe.

You decide.


	88. Drums

**Drums**

The year that never was gave Jack memories of being tortured, being killed again and again.

It gave Martha memories of walking the earth, desperately alone, hoping against hope that the Doctor, Jack, her family were still alive.

It gave the Jones family memories of slavery aboard a prison ship.

The Doctor carries his own memories of that year, but that's not all the Master gave him.

Now, when the TARDIS flies through time, the Doctor tries not to listen. Because there's something else there, under the sound of the vortex.

Now, he can hear it.

The constant, never-ending drumming.


	89. Away

**Away**

Until the Doctor blew up her work, Rose never realised just how badly she needed to get away. Away from her painfully ordinary life, away from the drag of being average.

When she was trapped in Pete's parallel world, the worst thing wasn't losing the Doctor, however much that hurt. No, the worst thing was that she could no longer get away from the world.

When the human Doctor was trapped with her, he understood.

And when Jackie found a note from the two of them one morning that said simply 'Gone travelling', she couldn't honestly say she was surprised.


	90. Even

**Even**

When you left me on that beach, on the worst day of my life, I swore that I would find you again, Doctor. Even if it killed me.

I knew I was lucky to be alive after Canary Wharf, and I knew you'd want me to stay, and have a fantastic life without you, but I really didn't care. I was going to find you.

I did it, too.

And you left me with your clone.

I'm going to find you again, Doctor, even if it kills me.

And I'm going to give you the biggest slap of your life.


	91. Pompeii

**Pompeii**

The Pompeiian excavation has been… interesting, to say the least.

Mostly, it was what we expected, but there was one item that – well, let's just say it's caused a bit of controversy.

At first glance, it's a fairly standard carving, a man and woman with some sort of temple between them. But look a little closer, and the man is wearing a modern suit.

As if that wasn't strange enough, the temple seems to be a 1950s police call box, of all things.

Please regard this letter as a formal request for permission to investigate further.

Yours, Professor River Song


	92. Destroyed

**Destroyed**

My entire planet was destroyed.

_I love you._

My race died. I'm the only one left.

_Quite right too._

The other Time Lords burned because of me, and I listened to them die.

And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it…

I thought I was used to grief and loss and pain and heartbreak and guilt. I thought I could keep going, the way I always have.

If it's my last chance to say it – Rose Tyler –

I destroyed my entire planet, my entire race, and what finally broke me was one human girl.

_I love you._


	93. Save

**Save**

I can't always save you. One day you'll wander off, and you'll get into trouble. One day you'll end up dead, or trapped in another world, or dealing with a psychologically shattered family, or living with your memories wiped…

The point is, one day you'll end up out of the TARDIS, because I couldn't save you. Oh, I'll try. I'll send you away, I'll offer myself as a replacement sacrifice, I'll do anything. And one day it just won't be enough.

I can't always save you, all you brilliant humans.

But every time I invite you aboard, you save me.


	94. Darkening

**Darkening**

With every companion he loses, a little bit more of his control breaks.

With everyone who dies for him, everyone who dies because he couldn't save them, another thread snaps within him.

He knows it's happening. He can feel it. He knows that he is becoming something – becoming a man who sends his young companion out to walk a horrific version of earth alone. A man who invades the mind of his best friend, and destroys it.

He is a lonely angel, that much is true enough.

What everyone seems to forget, though, is that not all angels are good.


	95. Sun

**Sun**

Someone's got to stop this. That man, the one who calls himself the Doctor… I don't think any of this is his fault.

Step back for a moment.

Watch Sky Silvestry. She's the one controlling this, I'm almost sure.

Someone's got to stop this, and it doesn't look like anyone's going to. Everyone's panicking, everyone except Mrs Silvestry. And they've got reason to panic, too – no one knows what's happening.

I wasn't trained for anything like this. I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do… but someone's got to stop this.

I step into the sun.


	96. Reality

**Reality**

This is Donna's reality… she is married, to a man who can barely speak. She has two children. Time seems to behave strangely, but she's learning to live with it.

This is Donna's reality… she only occasionally thinks about the husband and children that the Library computer invented, and she travels on with the Doctor.

This is Donna's reality… a great chunk of time has disappeared from her memory. Occasionally she worries about that, but only occasionally – for the most part, she's happy. She's married, to a man who can barely speak. She has two children…

This is Donna's reality…


	97. Masks

**Masks**

You wear so many masks.

Rose never saw past them – you never let her. You wanted to hold on to the pretence, just for a little while, that you could travel with this girl who thought you were an angel, and pretend she was right.

Martha never saw past them either – she never wanted to. Because seeing past those masks – it might have made you that little bit less of a hero.

And then came Donna.

To Donna, you weren't an angel, and you weren't a hero. You were just her mate.

With Donna, you never really needed the masks.


	98. Finally

**Finally**

I've been alive for so long now. Thousands of years, more.

And now, at last, I've found what I've been looking for.

There's not a lot I can do for the universe, not any more. I've lived for so long… I'm just a face now, just a big face in a jar.

No, there's not a lot I can do for the universe – but there's something I can do for this planet.

I can give the one thing I have left to give.

I give my life force, and the skies open.

I have finally found a way to die.


	99. Faithful

**Faithful**

Would it kill you, Doctor?

Would it kill you to know that I was right? The death I warned you of, everlasting death for the most faithful companion…

For all your genius, Doctor, you will never understand this.

Your most faithful companion never travelled in the TARDIS. All your little humans, they were faithful, they loved you.

But only one gave all for you.

Only one could destroy his ruler, his entire race, all his people and all they worked for, for you.

I am Dalek Caan.

I am your most faithful companion, Doctor.

I give my life for you.


	100. Companions

**Companions**

He doesn't always make us better, our Doctor. Oh, he makes us stronger, braver, more confident… but sometimes he makes us into soldiers, or leaves us standing broken and crying on a beach. Sometimes he leaves us without even our memories.

Sometimes he destroys our families, and sometimes he breaks our hearts.

We are the Doctor's companions. We've travelled with him, we've seen the edges of the universe, and we've saved millions of lives.

No, he doesn't always make us better.

But even if it was just for a moment… every single one of us was magnificent.

Thank you, Doctor.


End file.
